The success journey of CEO Gireesh Mathrubootham
Born at Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu
Higher education was in Engineering
Received MBA in Marketing from the Madras University
Started his career with HCL and moved to the US as part of it
Returned to India in 2001 to become Product Management Director at Zoho
Became Product Management Vice President after two years
Left Zoho after nine years
Established SaaS startup ‘Freshdesk’ in 2010
It was done with friend Shan Krishnasamy
The aim was to provide a business software solution
Started at a 700 sq ft-warehouse in Chennai
Provided software supports like SEO, Adwords, Directories, Blogs
Focused on marketing and thus the brand grew
Rebranded as ‘Freshworks’ in 2017
Freshworks has the support of Accel, Tiger Global Management, CapitalG, Sequoia Capital India
Freshworks got listed on NASDAQ in September 2021
Received the market capital of 13 billion dollars
500 employees became crorepatis
Of them, 70 are below the age of 30
Realised the dream of ‘all employees owning BMW car’
Properly understanding the customers and market was the success mantra
A sports lover, Gireesh supports football
Started FC Madras for the same
Free scholarship for talented football players
Son of a retired bank officer, Gireesh is a fan of Rajinikanth
